5th Grade Writing PBA Assessment Score Explanation

Here are the Parent Letter Templates that schools will use to send scores to parents.

Spanish Communication 5th Grade Writing Assessment (Post-Assessment)

Arabic Communication 5th Grade Writing Assessment (Post-Assessment)

Amharic Communication 5th Grade Writing Assessment (Post-Assessment)

Mongolian Communication 5th Grade Writing Assessment (Post-Assessment)

 

Dear [Parent/Guardian Name], Recently, our students completed the 5th Grade Alternative Writing Assessment that is required by the State of Virginia. Your student was asked to compose a written response to a prompt [(I/we] provided, which was:

• Think of a topic or issue that you know and care about, which is an issue around which you have strong opinions.

• You have time to compose an opinion or argument writing piece in which you will write your opinion or claim and tell reasons why you feel that way.

• When you do this, draw on everything you know about essays, persuasive letters, and reviews.

Your student’s response to this prompt was scored by a team of teachers at [name of elementary school], using the rubric that we referred to in our last communication to you. We would like to provide you with information regarding how your student scored on the 5th Grade Alternative Writing Assessment.

Scoring:

Each student’s response to the writing prompt received a score in each of two domains: 1) composing/written expression and 2) usage/mechanics. Each domain was scored independently, using the following scale:

Score	Category	Descriptor:
4	Advanced	The writer demonstrates consistent, though not necessarily perfect, control* of almost all the domain’s features.
3	Proficient	The writer demonstrates reasonable, but not consistent, control* of most of the domain’s features indicating some weakness in the domain.
2	Approaching	The writer demonstrates enough inconsistent control* of several of the domain’s features indicating some weakness in the domain.
1	Developmental	The writer demonstrates little or no control* of most of the domain’s features.

*Control is the ability to use a given feature of written language effectively at the appropriate grade level. A paper receives a higher score to the extent that it demonstrates increasing control of the features in each domain. Your student’s scores were as follows:

Domain:	Score:	Domain:	Score:
Composing/Written Expression	[4, 3, 2, or 1]	Usage/Mechanics	[4, 3, 2, or 1]

“The following strengths were observed in your student’s writing” OR “These are areas for which we will continue to focus instruction for your student.”

• Comment 1
• Comment 2
• Comment 3

Please let me know what questions you may have about this process, and your student’s performance on this writing assessment.Thank you for your continuing support,